Quit the smoke and tell a joke: Stoptober uses comedians to lighten up bid to help people quit

Quit the smoke and tell a joke: Stoptober uses comedians to lighten up bid to help people quit

Stoptober campaigners are advising smokers in the North West to ditch the fags for a gag in an attempt to reduce the number of cigarette users in the UK throughout October.

For the average person it can take up to eight attempts to quit smoking before successfully becoming clean.

But this year’s Stoptober campaign hopes to encourage those who are struggling to pack in the habit by involving well-known comedians to spur on those taking part.

Comics including Bolton’s Paddy McGuinness, Al Murray, Andi Osho and Simon Brodkin are promised to bring a touch of British comedy to the Stoptober challenge.

Councillor Keith Cunliffe, cabinet member for adult social care and health at Wigan Council, said: “Stoptober is a great opportunity for the smokers across the borough to quit together alongside friends, family and thousands of other people in our area.

STOP! The scheme is supported by comedians such as Paddy McGuinness and Al Murray

“In Wigan Borough 21.8 per cent of residents currently smoke and I hope that the campaign will give them the encouragement and support they need to succeed in their 28-day quit attempt.

“Quitting is the single best thing you can do for your health and with the help of our local stop smoking service, the campaigns support and advice I’m sure this year will be very successful.”

Though the campaign from Public Health England (PHE) officially kicks off on October 1, the 28-day nationwide movement has commenced in Manchester Piccadilly Gardens, one of the 24 stops in UK roadshow.

The day was filled with hopeful quitters seeking advice and help from specialists and experts.

Standing outside the stop smoking hub in Piccadilly Gardens, Chris Bell from Stop Smoking Manchester and Barnardos revealed to MM the worries that most smokers had expressed during the day.

FINDING THE STRENGTH: Councillor Keith Cunliffe is backing the campaign

She said: “‘Should I use e-cigarettes to stop smoking?’, is the biggest question that’s heard by advisors like myself more recently now because of the popularisation of e-cigarettes.

“We wouldn’t recommend them to anybody to use because we don’t know what’s in them exactly.

“There are up to 4,000 chemicals in one e-cigarette* but we don’t know what exactly these chemicals are so we can’t recommend anything that we don’t fully understand.

"I would recommend people to treat them like a cigarette, smoke them outside and not in front of children or in enclosed spaces.”

Video of Stoptober 2014

Mohamad Mohsan, 22, from Manchester, who signed up to Stoptober yesterday said: “I started smoking when I was 16 years-old socially with friends but I soon became addicted.

“I went on to smoke 40 cigarettes a day, which I have now managed to reduce to 16 a day, but after six years of smoking I feel unwell and constantly tired.

“I have signed up to the Stoptober 2014 challenge because I want to be healthy like the Comedy Fitness Brother here today.

“I am confident I will be able to quit using the support available and would encourage young people in the future to socialise with friends who don’t encourage them to smoke.”

I WANT TO BREAK FREE: Mohamed has been smoking since the age of 16

Comedy won’t be the only technique used to encourage people to stub out their cigs for good.

Quitters will get a range of free tools including a new stop smoking pack, a 28-day mobile app, text support with daily updates.

There will also be quitting advice and tips for coping, as well as the encouragement and support from thousands of people quitting together through social media channels.

Chris continued: “We’re a diverse audience, society and country so I believe that having many different approaches is the answer.

“Having a fun spin on it may appeal to some people and that will maybe make it more encouraging.

“Sometimes it’s the health messages and sometimes it’s the financial side of it. There’re a lot of different things that can be the turning point.”

The 2013 campaign saw 250,000 people take part and 65% of those who took part successfully quit for 28 days.

The PHE is hoping even more will get involved this year by searching ‘Stoptober’ online and signing up.

Andrea Crossfield, Chief Executive of North West anti-tobacco social enterprise Tobacco Free Futures said: “After a successful Stoptober 2013, which saw 28,000 people in the North West sign up to quit, it would be great to see even more people pledging to quit this year.

“If you quit smoking for 28 days then you are five times more likely to quit for good, improving your health and putting more money into your pocket.”

For more information and to sign up visit www.smokefree.nhs.uk/Stoptober or call 01942 481712 to speak to the stop smoking service.

*While the quote is accurate, MM have been unable to confirm exactly how many chemicals are in an e-cigarette. There are more than 4,000 in a regular cigarette, but many sources say it is a lot less in an e-cigarette.

Images courtesy of Stoptober, with thanks

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They have absolutely no idea of the current state of research into ecigarettes, and are completely ignorant of the realities. I think that if and when they speak to PHE, they may get educated, as PHE seem to have a far better clue about ecigs.

It's this sort of uneducated scaremongering that is sending people back to cigarettes, when ecigs are far less harmful.

No there aren't. Typically there are four. Please add a clarification to make it clear that Ms Bell has no idea what the hell she's talking about. Her ridiculous claims could deter people from switching, and that's potentially deadly.

I am hoping that this is a typo or misunderstanding of some sort. But, as has been previously mentioned, 4000 chemicals in one ecig? I can only assume that someone has gotten confused with the numbers quoted for cigarette smoke, which of course e-cigs contain none of what with their being no tobacco and no burning/fire etc.

That aside - it is astonishingly irresponsible to tell smokers NOT to switch to vaping if they are asking! The relevant point here being that if they are asking, they are interested which makes them far more likely to succeed at either stopping smoking or switching their habit to a far safer one. The evidence for this is widely available even if the people at this particular Stop Smoking Service are unfamiliar with it.

I would like to know if you are keeping track of all the smokers you have just scared off of vaping so that you may follow them up in 6 months and see how they are doing. I would be willing to bet that a great number are still smoking. And whose fault would that be? Yes. Yours! Congrats on using tax payer money meant to help smokers to...uh...not help smokers!

i hope and pray that this was a geniune mistake and not a lie because this was without doubt one of the worst bits on ecigs i have had the misfounture to read . 4000 chemicals when it is 4 . please correct your mistake otherwise this could stop someone switching to ecigs to save

their lives . And in future do some research before you make yourself look stupid

There are two fields. You are standing in a field full of land mines. The other field has many people in it, kicking a football around, having fun and most importantly, not exploding in it. Do you switch fields? Or do you stay put because you don't know what's in the other field? And yes, there are FOUR main ingredients in ecigs. :)

The scaremongering about electronic cigarettes comes from Big Pharma who spend millions to lobby against electronic cigarettes (Google it as it's well documented and they are open about it), and they also provide a large proportion of the funding for stop smoking "charities". Big Pharma's patches and gum are useless and so the electronic cigarette, which is safe and actually works for quitting smoking,is their worst nightmare and they are doing everything they can to scare people out of using them.

I can't believe that members of Stoptober Campaign are scaremongering by blurting out facts and figures they know nothing about to stop smokers of tobacco using a life saving device and in so doing they are achieving the total opposite of Stoptober

I find it genuinely sad when I read a story like this. The quote from Chris Bell stating that e-cigs have 4000 chemicals in them is so grossly incorrect that it can only have come from 1 of 3 things:

Incorrect or insufficient information. As Mr Bell is described as an expert and a specialist, I would have expected him to be fully conversant with the facts about e-cigs, published by sources such as NICE, NHS Choices, ASH and many many others. As such, a quotation so grossly at odds with reality beggars belief.

Deliberate misinformation. I find this hard to believe, but include it for the sake of completeness. Why would a man who has dedicated himself to help people stop smoking deliberately spread fear, uncertainty and doubt over a product that has been scientifically proven to be at least as effective as traditional NRT? No, I think we can rule this out.

A genuine mistake. It is my firm hope that this is the cause, and that this will be rectified either with a statement from Mr Bell, or by the editorial team.

There appears to be a lot of confusion between tobacco cigarettes, which contain at least 4,000 chemicals, and e-cigarettes, which contain up to four.

I hope this was a typo, that tobacco cigarettes were meant to be named as containing 4,000 chemicals, and a correction is printed. If not, this article could be directly responsible for ill-gealth or death amongst those who cannot or have no wish to stop using nicotine, who have made far more than eight attempts at quitting using 'approved' methods and had given up trying to give up before discovering ecigs.

It may also be a good idea to check the fairly large body of research by repitable scientists with no financial incentive to reach a pre-defined conclusion (yes, there are cases of tenders requested for research that give the desired conclusion in advance) before publishing something that could keep people smoking. This common type of media scaremongering is encouraging people to continue smoking, as approved methods have, at their best, a 90% failure rate on a population level.

So you cover yourselves with the waiver "up to" 4000 chemicals so that it's still true even though there are a tiny fraction of this number. You can say that about anything (pure, distilled water also has 'up to' 4000 chemicals).
Your attitude to the only product that has any acceptable rates of cessation success without any side effects of concern is astonishing.
Forget politics & Pharma-funding for a moment and try to remember what your service is contracted to do.

PLEASE realise that due to the fearmongering in all kinds of media toward electronic cigarettes I know several people who are to scared to try to switch to electronic cigarettes and thus keep smoking tobacco. Experiments show that vapor from e-cigarettes cause far less harm to cells than cigarette smoke. PLEASE!

“There are up to 4,000 chemicals in one e-cigarette* but we don’t know what exactly these chemicals are so we can’t recommend anything that we don’t fully understand.

This is one of the most ignorant and disingenious statements I have ever had the displeasure of reading in my entire life. We DO know what's in electronic cigarettes, Propelyne Glycol, Vegetable Glycerin, Distilled Water, Nicotine, and G.R.A.S flavorings. Please source where you found this supposed 4,000 number, otherwise we all know, and trust me we already do but just for some extra hilarity, that you are a lying shill. Obivously regardless if a electronic cigarette contained the same 4,000 chemicals a cigarette does, which it doesn't but just for arguements sake we'll say it does, the problem is one is being combusted and one is being vaporized. The overwhelming risk of traditional combustible tobacco products is the combustion itself. So instead of embracing vaping products, you take an alarmist, demonizing position, and instead recommend users just "quit". Y'know, because the statistics of someone being able to flat out quit is under 4%. Instead of choosing a method that has been found to have a cessassation rate of 70%, also known as the product you're deamonizing, electronic cigarettes. I understand you probably in all earnest have no clue about any of this, and simply just make sure that Pharmaceutical check is in your account at the end of the month to see which side you're on, but for the sake of the millions of peoples lives at risk, if you actually have a heart that isn't as black as the peoples lungs that will die without electronic cigarettes, recant your statement. Thank you.